Hidden Figures uncovers the true story of a the black female mathematicians at NASA who helped win the space race against America's rivals in the Soviet Union and, at the same time, sent the quest for equal rights and opportunity rocketing forwards. The film centers on Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson who worked at NASA as "human computers" in the 1950s. Hidden Figures is based on the Sloan-supported book by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race